California Mom Fights "Dr. Feel-Good" Pill Mills

NBC

Joey Rovero of San Ramon, a California High School graduate, was just a few months from graduating Arizona State University in winter of 2009 when the 21-year-old took his last road trip. His mother, April, said Joey went with two college fraternity friends from Arizona to Orange County to visit a doctor notorious for easily giving out prescription drugs. Nine days later, Joey was dead. April Rovero said her son was a sweet and charismatic young man who was never known to take medicine or drugs, but the coroner found a cocktail of Oxycontin, Xanax and alcohol in Joey’s system.

Full Article >

Investigation focuses on doctor in drug deaths

Los Angeles Times

The Medical Board of California has launched an investigation into a string of 16 fatal overdoses tied to powerful narcotics prescribed by a prominent Orange County physician. Dr. Van Vu, a pain management specialist in Huntington Beach, was featured in a Los Angeles Times article in November that detailed the 16 deaths. A board investigator recently began obtaining signed releases from relatives of the deceased patients, authorizing the board to review their medical records.

Full Article >

Oakland marijuana dispensary lawsuit tossed

Fresno Bee

Oakland's lawsuit claiming federal officials are illegally trying to shut down a medical marijuana dispensary has been tossed by a federal magistrate judge. Oakland was the nation's first city to take on federal enforcement actions aimed at closing down the pot dispensaries. On Thursday, the San Francisco magistrate judge dismissed the lawsuit filed in October and ruled federal efforts to close Harborside Health Center in Oakland can proceed.

Full Article >

Homeless Court Flips Judgment Day into a Graduation Day

Voice of San Diego

Once the judge arrived in a simply appointed classroom at Veteran’s Village on Wednesday afternoon, the proceedings zipped. Three dozen or so defendants had mustered whatever dressy clothes they could for a brief chance to walk up to a podium in front of Superior Court Judge Desiree Bruce-Lyle, be presented by an attorney, and, in most cases, have fines, fees and punishments dismissed.

Full Article >

Ex-mayor's lawyer ties her gambling addiction to brain tumor

Los Angeles Times

The lawyer for former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor suggested that a brain tumor may have caused her to lose massive sums gambling on video poker games. Over a nine-year period O'Connor wagered an estimated $1 billion, including millions from a charity set up by her late husband, who founded the Jack in the Box fast-food chain. That was the portrait that emerged in court Thursday as the frail former mayor tearfully acknowledged that she skimmed more than $2 million from the charity founded by her late husband, Robert O. Peterson.

Full Article >

Video poker was ex-mayor's vice

San Diego Union-Tribune

The addiction to gambling does not discriminate. It strikes across all echelons of society, devastating the finances, jobs and families of everyone from doctors and police officers to college students and retirees. It is now blamed for the undoing of former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, sinking her deep into debt and resulting in a federal charge of making an unlawful transaction with $2 million in embezzled funds.

Full Article >

Jerry Brown warns of federal budget cuts' impact on state

Los Angeles Times

President Obama and congressional leaders are engaged in high-stakes negotiations over billions in federal budget cuts that could have a dramatic impact on California's economy. But Gov. Jerry Brown refused to say whether or not he supports the reductions, urging lawmakers instead to be wary of the effect decisions in Washington can have on the state’s economy. 

Full Article >

Inside the Obama administration’s plan to build 25 insurance markets

Washington Post

For months now, its been one of the health care overhaul’s biggest unknowns: Will the federal government be ready to run two dozen state insurance marketplaces? On Thursday Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight gave the Senate Finance Committee the most comprehensive explanation to date of what the agency has achieved so far—and what remains to be done.

Full Article >

Alcohol said to have big role in cancer

San Francisco Chronicle

Even moderate alcohol use may substantially raise the risk of dying from cancer, according to a study released Thursday offering the first comprehensive update of alcohol-related cancer deaths in decades. "People don't talk about the issue of alcohol and cancer risk," said Dr. David Nelson, director of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the National Cancer Institute and lead author of the study.

Full Article >

Toward a Smarter Drug Policy

Huffington Post (Blog)

In Los Angeles not long ago, a man named Michael Banyard ran afoul of California's "three strikes" law. After bouts of homelessness, unemployment, suicidal thoughts, and a criminal record driven by an underlying substance use disorder, Michael faced a mandatory 25-year prison sentence. Fortunately for Michael, Federal District Court Judge Spencer Letts was put in charge of his final sentence appeal. Judge Letts saw Michael not as a hopeless, drug-using criminal, but as an individual with a disease in need of help. The judge then did something highly unusual. He not only reversed Michael's sentence, he invited him into his chambers to talk.

Full Article >

Program for non-English speaking problem gamblers

Sacramento Today (Press Release)

Problem gamblers in the Sacramento area who speak little or no English now have access to free interpreted counseling through a new pilot program offered by the California Office of Problem Gambling (OPG). The Problem Gambling Interpreted Treatment (PGIT) program offers problem gamblers and affected family members interpreted treatment in Spanish, Hmong, Russian, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Punjabi.

Full Article >

Calif first to set standard for health benefits

Associated Press

California's health benefits exchange became the first in the nation Wednesday to set a standard benefits design to help people comparison shop for insurance under the federal health care overhaul. The move will help consumers more easily determine what kind of coverage they want to buy, said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California.

Full Article >

Covered California unveils health insurance market's blueprint

Sacramento Bee

Millions of uninsured Californians will soon be required to purchase health insurance, and Wednesday morning they got a glimpse of what to expect under the state's marketplace. Covered California, the organization responsible for implementing the federal health insurance overhaul, released a blueprint for what types of coverage will be available on the state's insurance exchange. The federal Affordable Care Act requires state exchanges to be up and running by 2014.

Full Article >

What Will Happen With Millions of 'Residually Uninsured' Californians?

California Healthline

Kim Belshé has been working to change the health care delivery system in California for years -- previously as the secretary of Health and Human Services under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and now as a board member of the Covered California health benefit exchange. She knows firsthand how much of a difference health care reform can make in California. And how much different that reform still needs to be.  "There is a really challenging reality facing us and that is a recognition that near-universal coverage is, in fact, not universal," Belshé said at a recent conference in Sacramento.

Full Article >

California health exchange reveals pricing, benefit designs for new insurance plans

Ventura County Star

Paving the way for the 2014 opening of California’s online insurance marketplace, officials on Wednesday rolled out the standard benefits that must be included in each policy and detailed what policies would cost for all those eligible for federal subsidies. A married couple with an annual income of $62,040, for instance, would pay $491 a month for a midlevel plan with a $2,000 deductible and $45 copays for doctor’s office visits. Premiums would be much lower for those with less income. A couple with a combined income of $23,265, for example, would pay $78 a month.

Full Article >

EDITORIAL: Eliminate the waste identified by state audits

Press Enterprise

Taxpayer dollars require careful oversight, even in small amounts. And a state government prone to fiscal instability especially should not ignore opportunities to save the public money. State agencies should follow the state auditor’s cost-cutting recommendations — and legislators should insist on those steps.

Full Atricle >

'Something is clearly missing' in VA mental health care

U.S. News

Eighty percent of veterans who attempted suicide and survived had received mental health care one month earlier from the Department of Veterans Affairs, underscoring the potential peril of 50-day average wait times they face in trying to access VA treatment, a suicide expert told a Congressional committee Wednesday. “When they had contact a month prior, the question I ask is: How long was it until their next (VA) appointment? Was it scheduled six weeks out? Is that the problem? Or was it scheduled one week out?” David Rudd, head of the National Center for Veteran Studies, testified before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Full Atricle >

The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punish

NPR

The United States puts more people behind bars than any other country, five times as many per capita compared with Britain or Spain.

It wasn't always like this. Half a century ago, relatively few people were locked up, and those inmates generally served short sentences. But 40 years ago, New York passed strict sentencing guidelines known as the "Rockefeller drug laws" — after their champion, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller — that put even low-level criminals behind bars for decades.

Full Article >

Prescription drug bills reintroduced in Congress

San Francisco Chronicle

Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Congressman Nick Rahall have reintroduced bills to fight prescription drug abuse. The West Virginia Democrats announced Thursday the legislation would establish new training requirements before health care professionals can be licensed to prescribe prescription drugs. It also would promote physician and patient education, create a uniform reporting system for painkiller-related deaths, and increase funding for state drug monitoring programs.

Full Article >

State Medicaid Drug Selection Panels' Conflict-Of-Interest Policies Vary Widely

Kaiser Health News

State policies to ensure drug selection in Medicaid programs is free from outside influence vary widely, according to a new study. MedPage Today: Medicaid Drug Panel Conflict Policies Vary Widely. There's little consistency among conflict-of-interest (COI) policies for state Medicaid drug selection committees, researchers found. Researchers could obtain such policies for only 27 states, and the principles governing these documents varied greatly, according to Nicole Yvonne Nguyen, PharmD, and Lisa Bero, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco. While two-thirds mandated disclosure of conflicts, for instance, fewer than half set monetary cutoffs for reporting, or required that disclosures be publicly available, they wrote online in JAMA Internal Medicine.

State Medicaid Drug Selection Panels' Conflict-Of-Interest Policies Vary Widely

California reveals details of health-law insurance plans

Los Angeles Times

Consumers are getting their first glimpse at what health insurance will look like in California as the state prepares to implement the federal healthcare law. On Wednesday, state officials will spell out the details on policies available next year to people buying their own coverage. In January 2014, most Americans will be required to have health insurance or face a penalty.

Full Article >

Obama's State of the Union Address Touches on Health Care Issues

California Healthline

During the first State of the Union address of his second term, President Obama on Tuesday acknowledged that rising health care costs are the biggest driver of U.S. debt but argued against major reductions to entitlement programs to rein in those costs, The Hill reports. Instead, Obama reiterated his proposals to reduce entitlement spending through "modest reforms," such as reducing Medicare's payments for prescription drugs, raising premiums for higher-income Medicare beneficiaries and continuing to reform the way health care services are delivered.

Full Article >

Elias: Obamacare improves California's budget health

Ventura County Star

It’s hard to find any government program that helps both the physical and financial health of many Californians and also fattens the state’s own coffers. But a new study from UC Berkeley indicates that’s how parts of the federal Affordable Health Care Act may play out, despite all its vocal detractors. The controversial law, shunned by governors and legislators in most of the 23 states where Republicans enjoy full control, already has seen more than 450,000 young adults in California gain insurance coverage and state residents on Medicare save upward of $600 million on prescription drugs, compared to what they paid in 2009-10.

Full Article >

Online simulation lets Californians tweak budget

Los Angeles Times

For eight years, a San Francisco-based nonprofit called Next 10 has created an online simulation where users can try to balance California's budget. This year's version may be the easiest one yet. “This is the first year in many years where we’re not starting out with a huge deficit," said F. Noel Perry, the venture capitalist who founded Next 10. The organization, entering its 10th year, examines financial, economic and environmental issues in California.

Full Article >

The Deadly Rise of Prescription Drug Abuse in the Military

MyABC50.com

Over the past decade, the military has spent $1.6 billion on painkillers (opioids) such as Oxycontin and Hydrocodone. $2.7 billion has been spent on anti-depressants and more than $507 million on sleep medications such as Ambien. According to the National Academy of Sciences, prescription medication has been abused along with alcohol in the last few years. Prescription drug abuse, mostly the use of painkillers tripled since 2002. The military substance abuse program has seen an overall increase in the amount of individuals enrolled in their program.

Full Article >

Prescription Drug Abuse

New York Times (Opinion: Eric Schneidermann, Attorney General, New York State)

Re “Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions” (front page, Feb. 3): Richard Fee’s heartbreaking battle with prescription drug addiction followed a tragically familiar pattern: casual use of pills from friends who had lots to spare because of overprescribing, followed by doctor shopping to obtain multiple prescriptions. Doctors who relied on the patient’s false statements missed warning signs because they lacked an accurate prescription history.

Full Article >

ADHD Teens at Higher Risk of Substance Abuse: Study

Top News

In a recent research, it has been found that if teenagers suffer from hyperactivity disorder ADHD, then no matter how effective medication they are given they stay more attracted towards drugs and alcohol abuse. In a previous study, scientists revealed that if ADHD-suffering teenagers are given the prescribed medicines, their chances of drinking or drug abuse lowers down but with the arrival of this recent study, the previous findings have been purely contradicted.

Full Article >

Abstinence Can Lift Drinking-Induced Depression

Psych Central

A new study clarifies that heavy drinking can lead to mood problems that often result in depression. Although experts have long known that heavy drinking can spur temporary episodes of depression — what’s known as “substance-induced depression” — the new research shows the prevalence and clinical importance of the phenomenon.

Full Article >

Project Prevention gives $300 to drug addicts in exchange for their fertility

First Coast News

Barbara Harris has been called a lot of things. A racist, a eugenicist, a thief. But as long as she can stop drug addicts from having children, she doesn't care.  "The money is motivating them, bribing them. I don't care what word is attached to it, it's working. It's their choice to use drugs, but the babies don't have a choice," she said. Since 1997, the non-profit Project Prevention has paid drug addicts, men and women, to be sterilized.

Full Article >

Narconon settles wrongful death suit but legal challenges remain

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Narconon of Georgia on Friday settled a wrongful death suit brought by the family of a former patient — three days before jury selection was to begin in the civil trial. Details of the sealed agreement were not available. Narconon of Georgia attorney Barbara Marschalk said in a statement, “We are happy to report that the matter was settled out of court to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.”

Full Article >

Viewpoints: Ban on doctors at rehab sites outdated

Sacramento Bee

In an antiquated California regulation that needs to change, medical doctors are blocked from stepping foot inside alcohol and drug residential treatment facilities. The dangerous detoxification period prior to treatment can take place without any medical protocol. According to a recent report, "Rogue Rehabs," released by the California Senate last year, the failure to allow appropriate medical oversight of sick patients at some California treatment centers has resulted in deaths.

Full Article >

California State Appeals Court Supports Tehama County’s Medical Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance

Sierra Sun Times

Earlier this week, the 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Tehama County’s cultivation ordinance which: 1) declares it a public nuisance to grow marijuana anywhere within 1,000 feet of a school, school bus stop, church, park, or youth-oriented facility; 2) restricts gardens to no more than 12 mature or 24 total plants on parcels of 20 acres or less; 3) requires outdoor gardens to be surrounded by an opaque fence at least six feet high and located 100 feet or more from the property boundaries; and 4) requires every patient garden to be registered with the county health services agency for a fee.

Full Article >

State lacks doctors to meet demand of national healthcare law

Los Angeles Times

As the state moves to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Californians under President Obama's healthcare law, it faces a major obstacle: There aren't enough doctors to treat a crush of newly insured patients. Some lawmakers want to fill the gap by redefining who can provide healthcare.

Full Article >

A delicate new balancing act in senior healthcare

Los Angeles Times

When Claire Gordon arrived at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, nurses knew she needed extra attention. She was 96, had heart disease and a history of falls. Now she had pneumonia and the flu. A team of Cedars specialists converged on her case to ensure that a bad situation did not turn worse and that she didn't end up with a lengthy, costly hospital stay. Frail seniors like Gordon account for a disproportionate share of healthcare expenditures because they are frequently hospitalized and often land in intensive care units or are readmitted soon after being released. Now the federal health reform law is driving sweeping changes in how hospitals treat a rapidly growing number of elderly patients.

Full Atricle >

Health care topic of CA special session

San Francisco Chronicle

California leaders are getting ready to consider legislation to expand health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured state residents as the start date of the federal Affordable Care Act moves closer. The act was signed into law by President Obama in 2010, but California must still pass bills to expand its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, for more than 1 million new people and set the rules that the insurance industry must follow when individuals begin to purchase medical insurance through an open market exchange.

Full Article >

State Considers Changing Non-Physicians' Scope of Practice

California Healthline

California lawmakers are considering expanding the scope of practice for non-physicians in an effort to address a shortage of doctors to treat individuals who will gain health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Full Article >

Businesses Urge States To Participate in ACA's Medicaid Expansion

California Healthline

Many businesses are urging lawmakers in their states to participate in the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, noting that failing to do so would shift the cost of insurance coverage from the federal government to employers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Full Article >

California gets unexpected $4.3 billion in January revenue

Sacramento Business Journal

Buoyed by much higher-than-expected personal income taxes, the state of California’s tax revenue for January came in $4.3 billion above estimates found in Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2013-14 state budget, Controller John Chiang said Friday while cautioning against undue exuberance in a state known for its “boom-or-bust cycles.”

Full Article >

Revenue roller coaster on the way up again

HealthyCal.org

California’s notorious tax-revenue roller coaster is on the way up again. How many times do we need to see this movie before we remember how it ends? Tax receipts in January soared nearly $5 billion above the projections Gov. Jerry Brown’s best experts made just a month earlier. Withholding from paychecks was 12 percent above projections while estimated payments from taxpayers came in at more than double what the governor and his staff anticipated.

Full Article >

Narconon, family reach settlement

Wsbradio.com

Narconon, the drug and alcohol treatment program closely affiliated with the Church of Scientology, has reached a settlement agreement with the family of a 28-year old former Marine who died of an overdose while in the facility's care five years ago.

Full Article >